CC1 Test message Test Text1 Announcer:20/20 returns with nick watt. Reporter:1:00 p.M., Third street, santa monica, california. And like millions of you out there, I'm holiday shopping and fretting how my chosen gifts will make it cross country in one piece. Because, well, there are some horror movies of the hell our packages might go through en route from "a" to "b." All right, these are the gory exceptions. After all these incidents, the companies took action to rectify the situation. I'm buying a gift for david muir and testing the system. All right, mission accomplished. Some kind of weird santa thing that looks very, very breakable. Can you really send a plaster santa from l.A. To n.Y.C. Without it getting broken smashed along the way? 1:30 p.M., Fedex, maxella avenue, marina del rey. And we're met by dana alcala. In the parcel packing game, this guy is jordan, elway and ripken all rolled into one. Whenever a customer asks me, "what happens when I file a claim?" It's kind of hard for me to answer that because I've never experienced that. Reporter: Career breakages -- zero. Parcels packed daily -- 30. Confidence -- 100%. I am confident I can package anything and it won't get broken along the way. Reporter: What about santa? Oh, wow, this looks pretty fragile. Reporter: Dana gets to work, sharing secrets along the way. I'm kind of massaging the bubble wrap just to see if I can feel the item. Reporter: And if you can feel the item? It needs more. More bubble wrap. Add some filler so it's not moving around. Then double box it, too. And when we tape up our box, we always "h" tape it. Seal the seams on both sides. Reporter: He's confident. Really. Nice and safe. Reporter: I did all I could to break it before it even left the office. I'm just going to need that measuring tape again. Reporter: Dana says his packages can survive being dropped four stories. U.P.S., By the way, has a testing lab in illinois where they simulate truck jiggle, extreme temperatures, and just plain being dropped from a bit of a height. Back to david's santa. 5:00 pm. He's on the move. 5:05 arrival at the sorting office, del rey avenue. 7:15. Santa arrives at l.A.X. And a half-hour later, he's on the tarmac, bound for memphis. Here we see flight 1204, which is departing l.A. In a few minutes. 1:09 a.M. And santa has arrived at the fedex global hub in memphis. 42 miles of conveyor belts, they're sorting half a million parcels an hour. Yeah, just go faster! Go a lot faster and make sure we get the boxes out on time. Reporter: Santa is scanned ten times before finding his way onto an airplane heading east. There's a lot of pressure. Over 20 milliopackages moving through the system tonight. Reporter: These are massive organizations. And within them, there's bound to be the odd bad apple. I mean, u.P.S. Will deliver 130 million packages just in the week before christmas. Fedex has 630 airplanes, 90,000 trucks and 300,000 employees worldwide. And here's one of the very rare bad apples. It's just days before christmas 2011 in southern california. That's a computer monitor. Unwrapped. So the driver totally knows what it is. Whammy. I need to see that again. 9 million people saw this on youtube. That's just bad p.R. Fedex posted an apology. I am upset and embarrassed for our customer's poor experience. Reporter: Fedex used this video as a training tool. How not to do it. And the driver? I can assure you we are working within our disciplinary policy. And the employee is not working with customers. Reporter: And how about a u.P.S. Bad apple? How's he going to get an 88-pound marble-topped table to kristina tripp's front door in colorado? Oh, he's going to do it like that. Roly poly. Unsurprisingly, the marble shattered into five pieces. And u.P.S. Paid up. 6:05 a.M. Santa has landed in jersey, newark airport. And 40 minutes later, he's wheels up for the big apple. 9:15 a.M., Manhattan. Santa's final sorting office. It was offloaded, put on the conveyor belt system, came up and went out the designated route. It's going out and deliver for you. Reporter: David, I imagine, is getting excited about his delivery. 10:00 a.M. Abc news world headquarters, new york city. It's the p.O.D., Proof of delivery. And santa's final destination. 17 hours, 30 minutes since he left marina del rey. Will he be broken? Will I get to file a complaint? All right, here we come. The moment of truth. 10:34 a.M. David muir's office. Intact, tasteful, heartfelt. This is a powerful moment between me and nick. Reporter: The moral of our holiday story -- remember dana's packaging tips. You alway to over-pack. Reporter: And you too can send a fragile santa clean across the country, safe and sound, in time for christmas. Nick, I didn't know you

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

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{"id":21296377,"title":"The Journey of a FedEx Package","duration":"3:00","description":"Act 5: ABC News' Nick Watt follows a parcel from California to New York, where colleague David Muir opens it.","url":"/2020/video/journey-fedex-package-21296377","section":"2020","mediaType":"default"}